Chương 272: (267) 4.46. The Dreaded To-Do List

The rest of the suggestions that the Earthers had left for Terra's council were far more mundane and boring. Things like people requesting shops to have more convenient hours, or for a crafter to come out and make an adjustment to their apartment nameplate after they swapped roommates. Apparently, the town was largely operating via what Vin discovered were called 'college rules,' where the housing was entirely up in the air and people just came to agreements as to who lived where.

Seeing as nobody actually had anything like deeds or rent to worry about, it was, in Spur's own words, a bit of a mess at times. That said, none of that was his problem, so once they wrapped up the meeting, Vin headed out to tackle the first thing on his to-do list. Inspired by the complaint box, he first headed over to the Crafter's Guild and put in a formal request for someone to come out and add Lumel's name to the plate in front of their apartment.

He had to clarify that he didn't want anyone's name removed, just Lumel's added to the list. The crafter he spoke to seemed more than a little confused to hear they already had five names listed and now he wanted a sixth, but he took one look at Vin's arm and quickly reassured him that someone would get right on it. That done, Vin then sought out Wanda and Ronald. Unsurprisingly, Ronald was baking in the Support Guild as usual, despite his crafter class, and Wanda was out at her regular fishing spot.

Both were happy to see him, and once he'd confirmed that they'd learned the last spells he'd left them with, he decided to kick things up a notch. After stressing how these newest spells were of an entirely different tier and that he'd almost certainly need to come redraw the runic formations for them one or two times over the next few days, he left Wanda with Create Water and Ronald with Create Fire.

While neither of them had shown the same knack for magic that he seemed to have, both were determined to continue their magical study, and both had far higher attributes than he'd had when he first started learning. He had no doubt they'd experience quite a number of runic backlashes in their attempts to perfect the runic formations, but for tier 1 spells, they shouldn't be more than mildly annoying.

Not to mention once they each had both the creation and sensing spells for their chosen affinities under their belts, all the other spells would be far easier to learn. Once that was done, he decided to fulfil his own promise and sought out Witherson. The general brought him to a testing grounds only a short ways out of town, where she had him chuck a handful of Fireballs of differing intensities at some mock structures she'd already built.

Vin didn't really know what he was doing, but Witherson was very pleased with his assistance. In the end, he'd destroyed just about every single structure she had up, during which she ended up taking more than a dozen pages of notes and sketches. She thanked him profusely, and requested he help her out again once she'd had the chance to make improvements to her old designs.

By this point, it still wasn't quite dark out, so Vin decided to make a quick trip over to Alka's fragment and see how the infernals were holding up. He almost went through the Underside, before remembering that they'd yet to actually discovered the dungeon on Alka's fragment. And with his new class, he was pretty certain he'd miss out on his chance to earn the 'new dungeon' experience unless he approached it from the front.

Thankfully, with his attributes and his Distance Runner passive, a roughly twelve-mile-jog was almost leisurely. He waved at a few groups of Earthers here and there going about their business as he ran by, but didn't stop to actually chat with any of them. He did pause at one point to ensure a handful of green-looking combat classes were able to take care of the big bad bear they were fighting off in the distance, but it seemed they had their own handler watching over them.

Someone he didn't know by name, but who he recognized as being from the first wave. Once they'd defeated the monster and began cheering, Vin smiled and continued on his way. He slowed down slightly when he hit Alka's fragment, and he was surprised to find he could actually follow the path the infernals had taken through the green sea of grass. Despite their migration having been a couple of days ago, he supposed moving a thousand people at once tended to leave a mark.

Having already found Alka's village long ago, he didn't need to follow their tracks, but he decided to take the opportunity to work on his skill. Sure enough, by the time the town finally came into view, he'd bumped his Tracking up to level 12. And killed three different snakes that decided to try their luck as he ran past. A number of infernals recognized him from a distance, and when he finally made it to the edge of town, both Agne and Alka were waiting for him.

"I'm so glad you're alright!" Agne said, rushing forward and yanking him into a suffocating hug.

"You need to take better care of yourself!"

"Eh, Vin's harder to kill than a roach," Alka said with a laugh, her eyes flaring as they swept over him.

"Glad to see you're still in one piece, beanstalk."

"Glad to see you too," he wheezed, doing his best impression of Telin as he barely managed to free himself from Agne's clutches.

"Sorry I wasn't here to help with the move. How has everyone been settling in?"

"It's been strange, getting used to everything," Agne admitted, glancing around town at all the infernals wandering here and there.

"That said, we're a tough people. If our ancestors managed to carry on after being forced to up and abandon their homes without warning and flee into the wilderness, surely we can do this much with your help." If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"The place is pretty much just as we left it," Alka shrugged.

"Which makes sense, I guess, given the surrounding fragments. The Earthers, Lumel's people, and the meriders would have no interest in checking it out. The capillans stay away from anywhere that's not cold as all hell, Sakis got attacked the last time they ventured in here, and from what Shia told us about your latest adventure, the sky fragment is another no-go zone. Honestly, this fragment is pretty isolated."

"Those kind, stone-wearing people who came to welcome us were attacked in here?" Agne asked, looking startled.

"Goodness, by what?"

"Unimportant!" Alka said quickly, actually having the audacity to clear her throat, despite being an unliving golem.

"Nothing to worry about, the threat is handled. Anyway, Vin, did you just come to say hello, or did you have a reason?"

"I heard through the council that Tiffany has officially finished her merger, and is on the ropes regarding whether she wants to come back to Terra or not," he said, relaying the message.

"Spur was hoping you could talk to her."

"Where she wants to live her life isn't up to me, but if you're saying she might be thinking of giving up being a Slayer, that is something that deserves a conversation," Alka growled, turning to Agne.

"Agne, are you good with Vin and me leaving for a few hours? The other Slayers should be more than enough to protect you if anything descends from the trees, and I have a friend who needs my guidance." Vin couldn't help but shiver at the way Alka said guidance, and he tried not to imagine a screaming, half-spider version of Tiffany running away from a manically laughing golem.

"That should be fine, don't you worry about us," Agne said, patting Alka on the arm with a clawed hand.

"You go help out your friend." With that, Alka and Vin took off in the direction of the meriders. As they ran, Vin filled her in on everything she missed during their week in the sky fragment. As he'd expected, she was mostly interested in the World Eaters.

"They were seriously that bad?" she asked as they gave one of the elder trees a wide berth.

"You're not exaggerating?"

"They weren't the size of mountains… they were the size of mountain ranges," he said, shivering at even just the memory.

"I was unconscious for three days just after making eye contact. Three days!"

"Alright, yeah that's pretty bad," she nodded.

"Though that does support a theory I've been working on. Remember the epic monster you and I took down during the battle for wave four?"

"I don't think I'll ever forget it," he drawled, urging her to continue.

"Well, Lumel said epic monsters were 'city killers,' and while that thing was horrifying, compared to those World Eaters you saw, it didn't seem nearly that bad, right?"

"Yeah… Where are you going with this?"

"Unlike you, I spotted the epic monster the moment it appeared, and I watched it kill a few people and monsters alike before you arrived. I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't totally sure, but I'm pretty certain I saw it grow with each thing it snuffed out. I think that monster didn't actually have a maximum size it could reach, and would have continued to grow larger and larger as it scythed its way through people. If we hadn't gotten to it until after it had killed a hundred, or even a thousand people…"

"Let's just thank the Gods we got to it when we did," he said, his face paling at the thought. He didn't like it, but Alka's theory certainly made sense. Lumel had said the epic monsters on her world were massive monsters that lived in the bottom of the oceans, which lined up far closer to the World Eaters than the weird, dimensional monster he and Alka had killed together. Perhaps they had simply gotten insanely lucky and fought off the equivalent of a baby epic monster fresh from the magical egg.

"You know, I don't think I ever told you, but Tiffany? She actually got a title for surviving that thing's attack," Alka said after a moment, laughing at his expression.

"Sadly, not the 'Epic Monster Slayer' title you got, which would have been awesome, but still a cool one. She got the 'Survivor' title. Appropriately, it's supposed to help her resist and survive just about anything."

"It's a shame she will have lost it along with the rest of her interface during the merger," Vin pointed out, earning a shrug from Alka. They ran the rest of the way in silence, and quickly found the path that led straight to Pendet. Unsurprisingly, Kark was waiting for them when they finally arrived at the edge of town.

"Vin! Alka! Welcome back!" Kark grinned, waving excitedly at them.

"How have you both been?"

"We're fine. It's good to see you again, Kark," Vin said, returning the merider's smile.

"We're actually here to visit Tiffany."

"Sure, that's no problem! Though if you're planning on staying the night, I'll have to ask that you remain down here with the others from your fragment," Kark said, gesturing over toward the side of the clearing. Only then did Vin notice there were a few Earthers camped out with a small cart beside them, busy cooking dinner over a campfire.

"Remember, unless you're injured or here for a merger, you're technically not allowed to stay in Pendet!"

"We know the rules," Alka said.

"Now, where's Tiffany? I've got a few choice words for her that she needs to hear."

"I'll lead you to where she's staying," Kark grinned, motioning for Alka to hop on his back. As the merider took off up the tree to the town suspended on a giant web four stories above the forest floor, Vin surprised him by running directly up the tree himself, using his enchanted boots to follow in his wake.

"My, it's nice to see some other races finally learning how to climb!" Kark said, peering at his boots with his many eyes.

"I love the smell of their magic!"

"You can huff Vin's feet later. Where's Tiffany?" Alka demanded.

"I'll hold you to that!" Kark laughed, turning and pointing toward one of the nearby nests.

"Our newest merider is right in here."